THE  STORY 
OFMOHONK 


California 

gional 

cility 


SAN  DIEGO 


fo. 


THE   STORY  OF  MOHONK 


THE     STORY 
OF     MOHONK 


BY 
FREDERICK   E.  PARTINGTON 


NINETEEN    HUNDRED    ELEVEN 


Copyright,  19" 
BY  MOHONK  SALESROOMS 


PREFACE 

'""ir^HE  oft-repeated  inquiry  as  to  the 
-*•  history  of  Mohonk  led  the  pub- 
lishers of  this  book  to  believe  that  a 
brief  sketch  of  its  founding  and  growth 
would  be  gladly  welcomed  and  cher- 
ished by  many  who  have  expressed 
their  love  for  the  place  by  making  it 
their  summer  home  for  many  seasons. 

We  sincerely  trust  that  the  book  will 
fully  gratify  those  who  have  expressed 
their  desire  for  such  a  work,  and  wish 
to  assure  them  that  it  is  in  every  re- 
spect a  token  of  good  will  and  affection 
to  all  who  care  for,  or  are  interested 
in  the  story  of  Mohonk. 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Mr.  Albert  K.  Smiley Frontispiece 

The  Old  Bridge  and  Mr.  Stokes  ...  2 

Early  Mohonk 2 

Boating  in  the  Old  Days 6 

The  First  House,  1868 8 

Mohonk  House  as  first  seen  by 

Mr.  Smiley,   1869 8 

Mohonk  House,  1911 12 

Office  Building  about  1882 14 

The  "Old  Boys" 16 

Washington  Profile  .     .     .  • 20 

The  Trapps 20 

View  from  Eagle  Cliff 24 

Sky  Top  Road 24 

The  Flower  Gardens 26 

The  Great  Crevice 30 

Undercliff  Road 30 

Testimonial  Gateway 32 


THE    STORY    OF    MOHONK 

ONE  day  in  the  early  summer  of 
1869,  Alfred  H.  Smiley,  who  was 
then  living  near  Poughkeepsie,  pro- 
posed to  spend  the  day  at  one  of  two 
places — either  going  by  steamer  down 
to  West  Point  or  going  by  carriage  to 
a  romantic  lake,  which,  he  had  heard, 
lay  hidden  in  the  mountains  west  of 
the  Wallkill  Valley.  What  finally  led 
him  to  the  choice  of  the  unknown 
lake  is  not  clear,  but  it  is  interesting 
to  speculate  what  the  future  of  Lake 
Mohonk  might  have  been  had  Mr. 
Smiley  that  morning  chosen  to  go  to 
West  Point. 

The  road  from  the  Hudson  to  New 
Paltz  differed  little  at  that  time  from 
the  present — but  from  New  Paltz  to 
Mohonk  no  road  of  any  consequence 
existed.  Local  picnic  parties  strug- 


2  THE   STORY   OF   MOHONK      • 

gled  up  both  sides  of  the  mountains 
over  paths  that  had  gradually  devel- 
oped, doubtless,  from  ancient  Indian 
trails.  Approaching  the  place  from  the 
Wallkill  Valley  side  this  rude  path 
followed  along  the  eastern  shore  of  the 
lake.  It  was  under  such  conditions 
that  Alfred  Smiley  paid  his  first  visit 
to  Lake  Mohonk.  He  used  to  tell  of 
his  speechless  wonder  as  he  caught 
the  first  vision  of  these  imprisoned 
waters;  how  weary  and  panting  he 
struggled  up  that  steep  rocky  path 
that  brought  him  under  the  beetling 
heights  of  Sky  Top;  and  how  suddenly 
he  saw  through  the  dark  pines  the 
glittering  water — and  beyond  it  the 
wonderful  cliffs  rising  from  the  western 
side  of  the  lake.  It  had  for  him  all  the 
sensation  of  a  discovery.  It  was  as  if 
now  for  the  first  time  this  lake  had 
been  looked  upon  by  a  white  man. 


HE     OLD      BRIDGE     AND     MR.     STOKES 


EARLY     MOHONK 


THE   STORY   OF   MOHONK  3 

There  was  scarcely  a  sign  of  life.  The 
shores  were  traversed  by  only  a  rough 
path ;  and  the  extraordinary  fissures, 
caverns  and  rock  formations  that  now 
afford  so  much  delight,  were  most  of 
them  inaccessible — their  existence  not 
even  suspected.  As  he  saw  it  then,  it 
could  not  have  differed  essentially  from 
what  it  had  been  to  the  Indians.  When 
the  white  men  first  appeared  in  this 
region  —  as  early  as  1614  —  the  lake 
already  had  its  name,  Mohonk  —  the 
Lake  of  the  Sky.  The  valleys  were 
peopled  by  Indians,  Iroquois  and  Al- 
gonquins  and  other  tribes,  fighting  fre- 
quently and  frequently  moving,  and 
all  of  them,  doubtless,  when  hard 
pressed,  retreating  to  the  labyrinths  of 
the  Shawangunk  (pronounced  Shon- 
gum)  mountains.  There  could  be  no 
more  baffling  maze  for  the  pursuing 
enemy  than  what  existed  then  and 


4  THE   STORY   OF   MOHONK 

exists  now  in  these  mountains ;  and  Mr. 
Smiley  has  frequently  expressed  the 
opinion  that  he  could  still  hide  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  lake  so  that  he  could 
not  be  found  by  anybody. 

At  the  time  of  this  first  visit  of  Mr. 
Smiley,  the  lake  and  adjacent  property 
were  owned  by  Mr.  John  F.  Stokes,  a 
farmer  in  the  valley,  an  excellent  man, 
who  had  already  built  a  small  rude 
structure  where  he  could  entertain 
picnic  parties  and,  for  those  who  were 
courageous,  could  offer  lodging.  Mr. 
Smiley  has  described  it  graphically : 

"There  was  a  little  house  here  in 
which  a  man  kept  a  barroom,  right 
under  the  corner  of  the  present  parlor. 
One  room  was  for  dancing,  and  people 
came  up  from  the  valley  and  danced  all 
night,  for  which  he  charged  them  one 
dollar  a  couple.  This  man,  and  an 
old  lady  and  an  Irish  boy,  ran  the 
establishment.  He  sold  liquor  also 


THE   STORY   OF   MOHONK  5 

though  he  tried  to  keep  folks  from  drink- 
ing too  much.  When  people,  however, 
really  got  drunk  and  hard  to  manage, 
Mr.  Stokes  used  to  chain  them  to  trees 
and  in  that  way  maintained  order. 
Over  the  large  dancing-room  were  ten 
bedrooms,  each  seven  feet  long  by  five 
feet  wide.  Each  bed  was  a  bunk  a  foot 
and  a  half  wide  with  a  straw  mattress, 
one  sheet,  one  quilt  and  a  hen-feather 
pillow,  and  each  room  had  one  chair. 
If  any  one  wanted  to  wash,  the  lake 
was  handy.  When  a  visitor  demanded 
dinner,  the  Irish  boy  would  catch  a 
chicken,  kill  it  in  front  of  the  house, 
and  pass  it  over  to  the  woman  to  cook. 
On  one  occasion — when  there  were  no 
chickens  to  catch — they  caught  the  pet 
peacock  and  the  old  woman  prepared 
it  for  the  guest.  This  showed  the  good 
nature  of  Mr.  Stokes.  He  thought  a 
great  deal  of  the  peacock  but  the  guest 
had  to  have  some  dinner — though  the 
visitor  confessed  it  was  the  toughest 
morsel  he  ever  tackled." 


6  THE   STORY   OF   MOHONK 

To  the  owner  of  that  mountain  hut 
in  1869,  Mohonk  was  doubtless  but  a 
lake,  and  Sky  Top  no  more  than  a  cliff. 
To  the  man  who  had  just  climbed  the 
mountain  and  stood  enraptured  on  the 
other  side  of  the  lake,  it  was  a  prospect 
for  which  he  could  imagine  no  bounds. 
He  saw  in  that  quick  sweep  of  his  eye 
the  whole  future  of  the  place  unfolding 
and  forming.  He  could  scarcely  be- 
lieve that  business  sagacity  had  thus 
far  missed  a  chance  like  this.  He  was 
standing  less  than  a  hundred  miles 
from  the  metropolis  of  the  country; 
he  was  surrounded  by  romantic  natu- 
ral features  absolutely  unknown  to  the 
great  outside  world — and  so  unique  in 
character  that  they  could  be  brought 
into  no  comparison  with  any  other 
known  region  of  the  eastern  states. 

He  was  ferried  across  the  lake; 
roamed  enthusiastically  from  point  to 


THE   STORY   OF   MOHONK  7 

point;  and  could  scarcely  wait  in  pa- 
tience till  he  should  send  word  to  his 
twin  brother  Albert.  It  is  a  pity  that 
the  letter  he  wrote  has  not  been  pre- 
served. It  reached  his  brother,  who 
was  then  at  the  head  of  the  well-known 
and  successful  Friends'  School  of  Provi- 
dence, R.  I.,  at  a  time  of  year  when  the 
activities  of  the  school  were  at  their 
height  and  when  no  thought  of  any- 
thing else  could  be  entertained.  But 
here  was  a  message  from  his  brother — 
a  wise,  conservative  man  of  great  busi- 
ness sense — asking  him  to  leave  every- 
thing and  to  come  to  an  obscure  lake 
in  New  York  state.  He  had  a  prompt 
reply  ready.  He  sent  word  that  it 
would  be  impossible.  To  a  second 
appeal,  however,  Mr.  Albert  Smiley, 
though  still  protesting,  came  on  from 
Providence,  and  together  the  twin 
brothers  visited  the  lake.  The  owner, 


8  THE   STORY   OF   MOHONK 

Mr.  Stokes,  was  there  to  meet  them, 
and  on  that  day  they  climbed  to  Sky 
Top.  Mr.  Albert  Smiley  relates  that 
"Mr.  Stokes  did  not  appreciate  some 
features  of  natural  beauty.  'I  suppose,' 
said  he,  'that  the  Creator  made  every- 
thing for  some  use ;  but  what  in  the 
world  He  ever  made  this  pizen  laurel 
for  I  can't  see.  It  never  grows  big 
enough  for  firewood  and  the  cattle 
won't  eat  it.' '  The  old  man  talked 
only  of  firewood,  fodder,  and  area. 
He  believed  he  had  three  hundred  acres 
to  dispose  of — he  had  a  map  to  prove 
it;  but  as  the  three  men  walked  up  to 
Sky  Top  and  the  view  began  to  widen, 
it  was  evident  that  it  was  not  a  ques- 
tion of  map  or  of  acres  with  the  two 
schoolmasters.  They  passed  above  the 
huge  boulders  that  lie  like  a  great 
chaos,  and  from  the  labyrinth  they  saw 
the  lake  with  its  indescribable  color 


THE     FIRST    HOUSE,     1868 


MOHONK    HOUSE    AS    FIRST   SEEK    BY    MR.    SMILEY,    1869 


THE   STORY   OF   MOHONK  9 

far  below;  they  watched  the  gradual 
unfolding  of  the  two  fertile  valleys  and 
the  Catskill  range  against  the  western 
sky,  and  finally  at  the  summit,  saw  the 
white  waters  of  the  Hudson  at  West 
Point,  and  the  far  away  hills  of  at 
least  five  adjacent  states.  They  looked 
down  as  upon  a  kingdom.  Both  men 
were  greatly  impressed,  and  talking  it 
over  together  agreed,  as  they  generally 
did  upon  all  questions,  that  before 
they  parted  that  day  from  Mr.  Stokes, 
an  option  on  the  property  should 
be  secured  by  the  brother  Albert. 
The  price  demanded  for  it  was 
forty  thousand  dollars.  The  price  paid 
was  twenty-eight  thousand  dollars. 
"I  spent  every  dollar  I  had,"  said  Mr. 
Smiley,  "and  ran  in  debt  fourteen 
thousand  dollars.  My  sole  purpose 
was  to  provide  a  home  and  in  order  to 
pay  for  it  I  started  in  a  business  for 


io  THE   STORY   OF   MOHONK 

which,  above  all  things  in  the  world, 
I  had  a  distaste  and  no  experience. 
I  suppose  that  hotel  keeping  was  the 
very  last  thing  in  my  mind  until  I 
bought  this  place,  when  I  was  about 
forty-five  years  old.  I  had  no  more 
thought  of  it  than  of  going  to  the 
moon.  I  had  graduated  from  Haver- 
ford  and  was  a  teacher  both  by  training 
and  by  taste.  I  had  been  nine  years 
at  the  head  of  the  Friends'  School  in 
Providence  when  I  bought  Mohonk; 
I  remained  at  the  head  of  it  ten  years 
longer  in  order  to  earn  money  for  my 
new  venture." 

Mr.  Albert  Smiley  therefore  found 
himself  suddenly  in  the  hotel  business. 
In  the  summer  of  1870,  the  original 
house,  erected  by  Mr.  Stokes,  was  a 
trifle  remodeled  and  made  to  accommo- 
date about  forty  guests.  They  were 
nearly  all  personal  friends  from  Phila- 


THE   STORY   OF   MOHONK  11 

delphia  and  from  New  York.  Still 
averse  to  the  details  of  hotel  work,  Mr. 
Smiley  employed  a  manager,  who  man- 
aged things  so  badly  that  the  next  year 
he  persuaded  his  brother  Alfred  to  su- 
perintend the  business  features,  and 
began  an  organized  policy  which  has 
ever  since  marked  the  growth  and  suc- 
cess of  Lake  Mohonk. 

There  is  a  story  prevalent  to  the 
effect  that  the  original  owner  was  a 
Quaker  who  refused  to  let  the  property 
go  unless  a  compact  was  made  never 
to  sell  liquor  in  the  hotel.  On  the  con- 
trary, Mr.  Stokes  had  always  sold 
liquor  and  tried  to  persuade  Mr. 
Smiley  to  keep  on  selling  it — at  least 
to  the  neighbors!  And  he  had  other 
serious  ambitions ;  for  he  urged  the 
new  owners  to  establish  a  race-course 
near  what  is  now  known  as  the  Home 
Farm;  and  he  evidently  was  convinced 


12  THE   STORY   OF   MOHONK 

that  with  liquor  for  the  neighbors  and 
guests,  and  a  race -course  for  amuse- 
ment and  for  a  source  of  income,  the 
venture  would  prove  a  great  success. 
The  opinion  of  the  old  tavern  keeper 
was  probably  shared  by  all  other  hotel 
men  and  most  of  the  public.  It  seemed 
preposterous  to  conduct  a  house  with- 
out a  bar;  and  still  more  preposterous 
to  exclude  cards  and  dancing.  But 
Mohonk  had  no  difficulty  in  meeting 
the  awful  prophecies  of  failure.  The 
hotel  was  full  in  its  first  season  and 
has  been  full  ever  since. 

The  original  purchase  called  for  three 
hundred  acres.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
there  were  only  two  hundred  and  eighty 
acres.  Besides  the  lake  it  included 
what  is  now  the  tennis-courts,  a  narrow 
strip  along  Eagle  Cliff,  a  little  of  the 
Home  Farm  and  Sky  Top,  and  ended  in 
the  garden  where  the  hotbeds  now  are. 


THE   STORY   OF   MOHONK          13 

This  first  purchase,  however,  was 
but  the  beginning.  It  became  almost 
immediately  manifest  that  no  amount  of 
moral  force  could  preserve  the  character 
of  Mohonk  and  keep  away  nuisances. 
The  history  of  nearly  every  great 
estate  is  a  record  of  self  protection. 
In  the  first  place,  neighbors  in  the 
country  do  not  always  share  your  re- 
spect for  natural  scenery  and  natural 
objects.  If  wood  is  needed,  they  cut 
down  the  trees,  even  along  the  roadside 
— the  best  and  the  biggest;  if  large 
berry  crops  are  wanted,  they  do  not 
hesitate  to  set  fire  to  acres  and  acres 
and  imperil  a  whole  county;  if  they 
need  building  stone  —  they  blow  up  a 
historic  precipice;  if  they  seek  drainage 
they  foolishly  pollute  a  mountain 
stream.  To  protect  Mohonk  from  all 
these  dangers,  Mr.  Smiley  began  a 
series  of  purchases.  He  was  surrounded 


14  THE   STORY   OF   MOHONK 

by  farms,  and  one  after  another  they 
were  added  to  his  holdings.  "The 
hardest  work  I  ever  did  in  my  life," 
said  Mr.  Smiley,  "was  the  buying  of 
those  farms."  No  sooner  was  a  menace 
disposed  of  in  one  direction  than  an- 
other one  appeared  somewhere  else. 
It  was  a  perennial  contest.  Farms 
good,  bad  and  indifferent  had  to  be 
gathered  in.  Some  were  promptly  de- 
veloped for  dairy  purposes — and  still 
contribute  to  the  supplies  of  the  house. 
Some  continued  to  be  used  for  crops 
and  for  the  support  of  cattle  and  horses. 
For  several  years  some  of  them  yielded 
abundant  quantities  of  fruit.  It  has 
taken  over  one  hundred  distinct  pur- 
chases to  establish  the  present  state  of 
immunity.  From  a  plot  of  two  hun- 
dred and  eighty  acres,  the  estate  has 
been  extended  to  a  domain  of  over  five 
thousand  acres.  From  a  span  of  a  few 


OFFICE     BUILDING     ABOUT     1882 


THE   STORY   OF   MOHONK          15 

hundred  feet  along  the  lake  it  has  been 
increased  to  a  length  of  about  eight 
miles,  and  approaches  New  Paltz  to 
within  a  mile.  This  is  sufficient  to 
show  the  growth  in  mere  acreage  and 
to  afford  a  startling  contrast  to  that 
first  but  most  important  purchase 
made  in  the  summer  of  '69. 

But  the  growth  in  territory,  while 
interesting  enough,  is  after  all  the  least 
important  phase  of  the  development 
of  Mohonk.  The  land  so  acquired 
meant  something  else ;  it  meant  that  the 
hotel  was  growing  and  it  meant  espe- 
cially that  tremendous  energy  had  to 
be  turned  to  the  development  and  to 
the  beautifying  of  that  land.  The  old 
Stokes  House  that  stood  near  the  lake, 
as  already  intimated,  underwent  im- 
mediate changes.  To  this  was  added 
the  old  dining-room  wing.  Back  of 
this  and  on  a  level  with  the  cliffs 


16  THE   STORY   OF   MOHONK 

the  small  parlor  building  was  erected 
and  became  one  of  the  memorable 
features  of  early  Mohonk.  "The  Lit- 
tle Parlor,"  with  its  expressive,  cosy 
chairs  and  its  genteel  habituees,  grew, 
to  some  of  those  interesting  little  ladies, 
almost  sacred.  While  this  section  was 
still  standing,  the  old  original  office 
wing  was  demolished  and  the  first  en- 
largement of  the  business  part  of  the 
house  was  made  in  1880.  Subsequently 
the  large  parlor  section  was  erected. 
Beyond  this,  in  1879,  the  present  Rock 
Building  rose.  In  1892-93  the  present 
dining-room  and  the  new  kitchen  were 
added.  The  old  dining-hall  was  divided 
into  temporary  rooms  and  this  wing 
preserved  till  1902  when  it  was  torn 
down  and  the  central  section  extending 
from  the  office  to  the  new  dining-room 
erected.  In  1899  the  large  office  build- 
ing, containing  small  rooms  above  and 


o  <-> 


THE   STORY   OF   MOHONK          17 

the  old  Lake  Reading-room,  was  demol- 
ished and  the  present  structure  with 
the  great  parlor  took  its  place.  And 
finally,  as  the  last  process  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  House  as  it  now  stands,  in 
1901-02,  the  lofty  stone  section  sup- 
planted the  old  parlor  wing.  At  each 
stage  there  disappeared  some  feature 
of  old  Mohonk,  grown  to  be  cherished 
by  the  guests,  and  it  was  perplexing  at 
times  to  decide  whether  to  be  guided 
by  sentiment  or  necessity.  The  oldest 
part  of  the  present  hotel  is  the  Rock 
Building  erected  in  1879 — and  every 
vestige  of  the  other  sections  standing 
at  that  time  has  disappeared. 

Meanwhile  the  development  of  the 
grounds  went  on  with  great  rapidity. 
Wild  nature  came  up  to  the  very  doors 
of  the  hotel  and  rough  paths  or  trails 
had  been  broken  only  to  prominent 
points.  Not  infrequently  guests  lost 


i8  THE   STORY   OF   MOHONK 

their  way  on  the  long  tramps,  and  on 
one  occasion  a  lady  despairing  of  ever 
getting  home  became  hysterical  and 
set  up  heart-rending  shrieks  till  help 
came.  She  was  found  standing  less 
than  two  hundred  feet  from  the  house. 
To  make  accessible  the  beauty  and 
romance  of  the  mountain,  the  system- 
atic construction  of  paths  was  begun. 
Through  labyrinth  and  forest,  over 
ravines  and  under  precipices,  through 
fissure  and  cavern  and  solemn  vales, 
year  after  year  the  trails  were  made 
and  the  trails  then  widened  into  walks, 
till  one  could  well  nigh  spend  a  summer 
in  tramping  without  the  repetition  of 
a  path;  and  it  is  one  of  the  pleasantest 
memories  of  those  earlier  days  to  recall 
the  forenoon  tours  led  by  Mr.  Smiley 
himself,  when  scores  of  guests  both 
young  and  old  went  forth  with  Alpine 
stocks  to  explore  the  mysteries  of  the 


THE   STORY   OF   MOHONK          19 

Shawangunk  range.  Gradually  along 
these  paths  sprang  up  the  rustic  seats 
with  straw-thatched  roofs,  peculiar  to 
Mohonk ;  and  as  time  went  on  the 
names  of  distinguished  visitors  were 
given  to  these  picturesque  houses,  of 
which  at  present  there  must  be  no  less 
than  one  hundred  and  fifty. 

For  years  the  only  drive,  and  that  a 
rough  one,  was  what  was  known  as 
Whitney  Road,  leading  over  to  Moun- 
tain Rest.  Later  came  a  beautiful 
road  called  Woodland  Drive,  circling 
about  the  base  of  Eagle  Cliff  through 
the  chestnut  forest.  In  quick  succes- 
sion roads  were  built  to  Cope's  Look- 
out, North  Lookout,  Eagle  Cliff  and 
Sky  Top,  involving  at  some  points  the 
highest  engineering  skill.  Bonticou 
Drive  came  in  1895;  the  long  winding 
forest  road — Oakwood  Drive — followed 
in  1898;  the  bold  and  romantic  Laurel 


20  THE   STORY   OF   MOHONK 

Ledge  Road  in  1900;  UnderclifT  and 
Terrace  Drive  in  1903;  the  great  road 
to  Minnewaska  in  1907;  all  of  these 
drives  presenting  model  examples  of 
road  making  under  surprising  difficul- 
ties, surprisingly  overcome. 

The  demolition  of  the  old  stables  in 
1888,  marked  the  real  beginning  of  the 
extensive  gardens.  The  land  thus  lib- 
erated grew  rapidly  larger,  and,  as  al- 
ready mentioned,  no  one  who  has  not 
seen  the  untamable  jungle  beyond  this 
point  could  appreciate  the  combined 
enthusiasm  and  energy  required  to 
transform  all  that  into  the  blossoming 
acres  that  now  stretch  almost  to  the 
crest  of  the  mountain.  What  that  gar- 
den yields  in  variety  and  color,  what 
it  succeeds  in  producing  against  appar- 
ently natural  obstacles,  is  a  story  by 
itself.  There  are  six  thousand  rose 
bushes  of  the  choicest  kinds,  five  thou- 


WASHINGTON      PROFILE 


THE     T  R  A  P  P  S 


THE    STORY   OF   MOHONK          21 

sand  pasonies,  four  thousand  phlox, 
eight  thousand  bedding  plants,  and 
one  of  the  largest  -collections  of  her- 
baceous perennials  and  shrubs  in  the 
country. 

No  words  can  convey  any  concep- 
tion of  the  difficulties  that  confronted 
the  new  owner  of  Mohonk  when  he 
really  began  to  exploit  the  mountains 
for  roads  and  flower  beds.  Gardening 
with  Mr.  Smiley  was  dangerously  near 
a  passion.  As  nature  had  arranged 
things  at  Mohonk  there  seemed  to  be 
only  two  places  for  growing  flowers — 
on  the  quartz  rocks  and  on  the  branches 
of  trees.  A  remote  third  might  have 
been  on  the  lake — a  floating  garden. 
There  was  not  a  square  of  a  hundred 
feet  where  anything  but  ferns  and  li- 
chens could  hold  on — and  it  had  taken 
some  of  the  lichens  a  hundred  years  or 
more  to  cover  a  few  inches.  The  old 


22  THE   STORY   OF   MOHONK 

guests  with  records  of  thirty  summers 
are  the  only  ones  who  can  really  appre- 
ciate the  miracle  of  the  gardens.  They 
can  look  back  to  the  time  when  Mr. 
Smiley  used  to  point  with  pride  to  a 
bed  of  geraniums  on  the  side  of  the 
road  close  to  the  water  and  to  a  delicate 
white  birch  tree  that  looked  like  a  frail 
child — not  long  for  this  world.  He 
succeeded  in  stringing  those  geraniums 
along  the  road  as  it  swings  over  the 
bridge  and  to  the  south,  and  every  bud 
cost  him,  probably,  five  dollars.  Any- 
body caught  plucking  one  would  doubt- 
lessly have  paid  ten  or  have  been  sent 
away.  He  classed  that  sin  with  drink. 
Gradually  these  ganglia  of  flowers  be- 
gan to  grow.  Larger  beds  were  made — 
soil  was  brought  long  distances  and  all 
around  the  exterior  of  the  house  plants 
were  made  to  flourish  in  especially 
fortified  enclosures  and  in  soil  that 


THE   STORY   OF   MOHONK          23 

practically  had  to  be  renewed  to  the 
last  particle  every  year.  Finally  when 
the  old  stables  near  the  bowling-alleys 
were  removed  in  1888  the  present  gar- 
den, as  already  noted,  began  its  remark- 
able expansion.  Beyond  the  stables 
lay  a  wilderness  of  boulders  and  cliffs. 
To  civilize  this  was  literally  asking 
Faith  to  remove  mountains.  It  was 
done  partly,  perhaps,  to  provide  space 
for  flowers.  It  was  more  likely  that 
the  impossible  nature  of  the  task  acted 
as  a  challenge.  It  is  always  so  with 
intrepid  engineers — pole  seekers — be- 
siegers. Getting  the  land  may  have 
been  the  hardest  thing  Mr.  Smiley  ever 
did — but  taming  it  gave  him  the  great- 
est delight  of  his  life.  He  did  not  rest 
until  he  had  coaxed  into  blossom  nearly 
twenty  acres  of  that  hopeless  slope  of 
the  mountain.  Most  of  the  earth  was 
brought  a  mile  or  more — and  the  won- 


24  THE   STORY   OF   MOHONK 

der  is,  still,  how  it  is  ever  kept  in  place. 
To  this  garden  Mr.  Smiley  has  given  no 
end  of  time  and  intelligent  care,  and  his 
reward  has  been,  as  he  himself  says, 
"a  long  life  and  abounding  health." 

Unique  as  the  physical  history  of 
Mohonk  has  been,  it  is  doubtless  the 
spirit  of  the  place  that  ultimately  dis- 
tinguishes it  from  all  others.  Its  well 
known  silent  code  relating  to  the  com- 
mon nuisances  of  liquor,  dancing,  card 
playing  and  Sabbath  breaking  gave  it 
a  certain  eminence  from  the  start.  The 
truth  about  these  rules  is  that  Mr. 
Smiley  never  made  any  rules.  He 
never,  in  fact,  had  any  intention  of 
conducting  a  hotel;  at  least,  of  conduct- 
ing one  on  conventional  plans.  His 
guests  were,  at  first,  nearly  all  of  them 
personal  friends.  They  came  very 
much  as  they  would  have  come  to  his 
private  home.  It  proved  to  most  of 


VIEW  FROM  EAGLE  CLIFF  ROAD 


SKY  TOP  ROAD 


THE  STORY  OF  MOHONK          25 

them  a  refreshing  delight  to  find  one 
place  in  the  land  free  from  the  despotic 
sway  of  a  bar,  of  noisy  dancing  and  bad 
music,  of  monopolizing  card  parties, 
and  of  a  Sunday  that  differed  from  no 
other  day.  Some  of  them  used  to  re- 
mark that  it  had  the  restful  isolation 
of  an  ocean  voyage — though  in  these 
days  of  wireless,  the  invasion  of  Mo- 
honk  remains  even  less  than  that  of  the 
Atlantic.  The  first  noticeable  result 
was  in  the  personnel  of  the  guests.  The 
house  never  advertised  and  never 
sought  publicity.  Mr.  Smiley  himself 
met  every  guest  on  arrival  and  was 
present  always  to  say  God-speed.  The 
native  atmosphere  of  the  place  brought 
speedily  together  a  body  of  well-bred, 
unostentatious,  thoughtful  people. 
They  were  not  of  any  particular  type 
or  caste.  A  classification  of  any  of 
those  early  registers  would  show  a  widely 


26  THE   STORY   OF   MOHONK 

representative  group  of  American  men 
of  affairs.  Lawyers,  doctors,  schol- 
ars, bankers,  merchants  and  executives 
came  in  great  numbers — and  continued 
to  come  year  after  year.  That  was  the 
abiding  feature.  It  became  a  settled 
summer  abode  for  scores  of  well-known 
families.  It  was  perhaps  noticeably 
free  from  the  ultra-fashionable,  mer- 
cerized or  newspaper  society,  and  has 
always  remained  so.  Dr.  Theodore  L. 
Cuyler,  who  came  to  Mohonk  first  in 
1879,  describes  his  immediate  meeting 
with  many  prominent  people.  He 
found  here  the  nieces  of  Washington 
Irving;  he  met  for  the  first  time  the 
merchant  philanthropist,  William  E. 
Dodge;  Arnold  Guyot,  the  distin- 
guished scientist — for  whom  Guyot's 
Hill  is  named;  Philip  Schaff,  the  tire- 
less scholar,  editor,  friend  of  all  the 
world's  great  thinkers.  He  records  his 


THE   STORY   OF   MOHONK          27 

meeting  here  with  Mrs.  Grant,  wife  of 
the  soldier  President ;  with  President 
Hayes — and  Roosevelt  and  Waring; 
with  Edward  Everett  Hale,  Justices 
Brewer  and  Strong,  Senator  Dawes 
and  many,  many  more.  For  nearly 
thirty  consecutive  summers  Dr.  Cuyler 
himself  lent  to  the  sparkling  intellectual 
life  of  Mohonk  no  small  measure. 

It  would  be  strange  indeed  if  a  gath- 
ering of  serious  and  prominent  people 
like  this  could  happen  so  often  and 
so  steadily  without  something  more 
than  mere  social  results.  In  1879,  Mr. 
Albert  Smiley  was  appointed  by  Presi- 
dent Hayes  to  the  Board  of  Indian 
Commissioners.  Surrendering  himself 
to  a  conscientious  study  of  the  problems 
he  became  convinced  that  they  needed 
more  discussion  and  care  than  the  In- 
dian Bureau  could  give  them.  In  the 
fall  of  1883,  he  called  the  first  Confer- 


28  THE   STORY   OF   MOHONK 

ence  of  Friends  of  the  Indians.  He 
invited  to  that  first  week's  conference 
a  group  of  men  and  women  either  ex- 
pert or  vitally  interested  in  Indian 
affairs  and  in  the  betterment  of  Indian 
conditions.  It  discussed,  what  subse- 
quent conferences  continued  to  do, 
every  phase  of  the  Indian  service  and 
plead  jealously  for  the  purity  and  the 
honor  of  all  relations  of  our  National 
Government  to  that  service.  The 
consequences  of  these  annual  discus- 
sions are  matters  of  record — the  whole 
public  sentiment  has  been  changed  and 
the  recommendations  of  the  Confer- 
ence have  passed  into  actual  legislation. 
The  first  Conference  had  for  its  Presi- 
dent, General  Clinton  B.  Fisk.  Among 
the  distinguished  men  who  have  since 
filled  the  office  may  be  mentioned  the 
late  Philip  C.  Garrett,  Dr.  Merrill 
E.  Gates,  Hon.  John  D.  Long,  Judge 


THE   STORY   OF   MOHONK          29 

Andrew  S.  Draper,  Hon.  Charles  J. 
Bonaparte,  and  Elmer  E.  Brown. 

The  reforms  demanded  in  the  Indian 
Service  being  practically  realized,  the 
Conference  of  1904  decided  to  broaden 
its  field  to  include  the  welfare  of  colo- 
nial peoples,  and  the  name  was  changed 
to  "Lake  Mohonk  Conference  of 
Friends  of  the  Indian  and  Other  De- 
pendent Peoples."  Under  this  title 
the  work  of  the  Conference  goes  on, 
and  in  October  of  each  year  Mr.  Smiley 
continues  to  invite  to  Mohonk  as  his 
personal  guests  for  three  days  several 
hundred  people  to  discuss  questions 
and  to  suggest  measures  relating  to 
colonial  affairs. 

The  Conference  on  International  Ar- 
bitration met  first  in  the  month  of  June 
in  1895  at  Mohonk  when  Mr.  Smiley 
invited  about  fifty  persons  of  note  and 
influence  to  come  together  and  to  form 


30  THE   STORY   OF   MOHONK 

some  organized  plan  for  the  study  and 
discussion  of  that  great  subject.  The 
purpose  was  from  the  first  reasonable 
and  definite.  It  proposed  to  discuss 
all  practical  means  for  substituting  ar- 
bitration for  war,  to  suggest  and  to 
urge  methods  and  mechanism  for  the 
settlement  of  international  differences, 
and  to  keep  the  public  steadily  in- 
formed of  its  economic  features  and 
possibilities.  These  Conferences,  in- 
creasing from  fifty  persons  in  1895  to 
more  than  three  hundred  in  1910,  have 
brought  together  not  only  the  influen- 
tial people  of  our  own  country,  but 
many  distinguished  statesmen,  diplo- 
mats, jurists  and  educators  of  other 
countries.  The  activity  of  the  Con- 
ference, no  longer  confined  to  its  brief 
session,  is  now  continuous.  It  main- 
tains a  permanent  office,  a  permanent 
secretary,  furnishes  statistics  and  in- 


THE   STORY   OF   MOHONK          31 

formation  to  the  press  and  to  the  pub- 
lic, and  carries  on  wide  and  effective 
propaganda.  Nearly  two  hundred 
boards  of  trade  and  chambers  of  com- 
merce, representing  the  largest  cities  of 
the  land,  co-operate  with  the  Conference, 
and  many  of  them  maintain  arbitration 
committees  and  send  delegates.  It  has 
brought  about  the  introduction  of  the 
study  into  various  universities  and  col- 
leges; has  done  much  to  inspire  the 
foundation  of  the  New  York  Peace 
Society,  the  Inter-collegiate  Peace  So- 
ciety, the  American  Society  of  Inter- 
national Law;  and  finally,  as  a  signifi- 
cant recognition  of  its  achievements, 
Albert  K.  Smiley  has  been  named  as  one 
of  the  administrators  of  Andrew  Car- 
negie's gift  of  ten  million  dollars  to  the 
cause  of  international  peace. 

It  is  little  wonder,  therefore,  that  to 
the  army  of  guests  who  have  climbed 


32          THE    STORY   OF   MOHONK 

to  Mohonk  for  the  past  forty  years,  it 
should  have  grown  to  be  a  sort  of  cita- 
del— morally  embattled  and  fearless 
of  the  foe ;  and  little  wonder,  too,  that 
these  same  guests  should  conceive  the 
wish  to  dignify  the  approach  to  such 
a  fortress  by  some  formal  and  expres- 
sive portal,  and  so  honor  the  life  and 
work  of  its  master  spirit.  The  Testi- 
monial Gateway,  erected  to  commem- 
orate the  golden  anniversary  of  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Smiley's  wedding,  serves  thus 
the  double  purpose,  and  constitutes  a 
unique  and  remarkable  testimony  to 
the  public  services  of  the  place  and  of 
the  man. 

The  story  of  Mohonk  then,  becomes 
obviously  no  simple  chronicle  of  a 
mountain  resort — the  annals  of  a  pleas- 
ant community  of  summer  guests.  Its 
material  success,  however  amazing,  has 
created  only  the  setting  for  movements 


THE   STORY   OF   MOHONK          33 

that  have  long  since  been  justified  and 
which,  affecting  the  honor  and  welfare 
of  the  country,  have  also  done  much 
to  foster  new  ideals  of  human  obliga- 
tions, and  to  inspire  new  hopes  for  the 
intercourse  of  men. 


University  of  California 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

305  De  Neve  Drive  -  Parking  Lot  17  •  Box  951388 

LOS  ANGELES,  CALIFORNIA  90095-1388 

Return  this  material  to  the  library  from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


C139 


UCSD  Libr. 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


A     000  676  699     2 


